The Saint’s Double Trouble (RKO Radio Picture, 1940)

One Sheet Poster

Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures

Producer: Cliff Reid

Director: Jack Hively

Assistant Director: Doran Cox

Screenplay: Ben Holmes

Original Story: Leslie Charteris

Cinematography: J. Roy Hunt

Music: Roy Webb

Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker

Editors: Theron Warth and Desmond Marquette

Art Director: Van Nest Polglase

Associate Art Director: Albert D’Agostino

Sound Recording: Hugh McDowell, Jr.

Gowns: Rene

Production Executive: Lee Marcus

Running Time: 68 minutes

Copyright Number: LP9392, January 26, 1940

Cast:

George Sanders: Simon Templer aka The Saint/ ‘Boss’ Duke Bates

Helene Whitney: Anne Bitts

Jonathan Hale: Inspector Henry Fernack

Bela Lugosi: Partner

Donald MacBride: Inspector John H. Behlen

John F. Hamilton: Limpy

Thomas W. Ross: Professor Horatio T. Bitts

Elliot Sullivan: Monk ‘Warren’

Pat O’Malley: Express man

Donald Kerr: Card player

Pat McKee: Card player

Byron Foulger: Ephraim Byrd

Stanley Blystone: Police Detective Sadler

Billy Franey: Street shooting witness

William Haade: Helm Van Roon aka ‘The Dutchman’

Lal Chand Mehra: Cairo express office clerk

Walter Miller: Mac, the bartender

Ralph Dunn: Police Sergeant on Raid

Edward Gargan: Police Sergeant Mike

Jack O’Shea: Street extra

Lee Phelps: Police Sergeant outside Bohlen’s office

Sammy Stein: Policeman

The Times-Picayune, November 10, 1939

Showmen’s Trade Review, January 20, 1940

Trenton Evening Times, February 9, 1940

The New York Times,、February 13, 1940

THE SCREEN

Simon Templar Has a Twin in ‘Saint’s Double Trouble’ at the Rialto . ‘Seige,’ a Record

One of the more obvious differences between “Penrod’s Double Trouble,” which we remember from a few seasons back, and “The Saint’s Double Trouble,” which we remember from the Rialto yesterday, is that Penrod and his double were played by the identical Mauch twins, while the Saint and his double are played by the identical George Sanders. As both the Saint and the murderous rogue who is such a ringer for the Saint, Mr. Sanders manages to look so much like himself under all circumstances that his resemblance is not merely uncanny but uncommonly amusing. What could be more jolly (and we prefer no answer) than seeing Mr. Sanders-as-the-Saint-impersonating-Mr.-Sanders-as-the-Boss confronted by Mr. Sanders-as-the-Boss impersonating-Mr.-Sanders-as-the-Saint? As the lad in the next row said, “Ain’t he the spittin’ image of himself, though.”

It’s fair fun, anyway, no less through the penny-shocker adventures of Leslie Charteris’s raffish hero as he lifts the smuggled diamonds from the less-deserving rogues who stole them, than through the sentimental duty-dodging of Detective Fernack, who likes the Saint too much to bring him to book. We hope, though, that this one schizophrenic flier ends Simon Templar’s double trouble; it isn’t his iniquity we admire so much, but his uniquity.

Also on the Rialto’s bill is a one-reel documentary, “Siege,” filmed in Warsaw by Julien Bryan during the days immediately preceding the city’s surrender. It is a grim and somber record of war’s effect on the civilian population, narrated matter-of-factly, photographed simply, objectively. Mr. Bryan just happened to be there, just “happened” to remain after the government, the war correspondents and the other photographers had gone. His film is almost a pictorial diary, beginning while there still is some little hope for the city, watching that hope crushed when the weary file of soldiers straggles back from the front and settling into a fearful, bewildered, hopeless period of waiting in the bomb-torn, shell-riddled, fire-swept ruin that was Warsaw. Not entertainment this, but first-rate camera reportage.
THE SAINT’S DOUBLE TROUBLE, screen play by Ben Holmes based on a story by Leslie Charteris; directed by Jack Hively; produced by Cliff Reid for RKO Radio. At the Rialto.
The Saint . . . . . George Sanders
The Boss
Anne . . . . . Helene Whitney
Fernack . . . . . Jonathan Hale
Partner . . . . . Bela Lugosi
Behlen . . . . . Donald MacBride
Limpy . . . . . John F. Hamilton
Professor Bitts . . . . . Thomas W. Ross
Monk . . . . . Elliott Sullivan